Relaxing after Karate

[AngelaG]

How do people 'come down' after a training session. Sometimes I find myself full of adrenaline after a long sweaty training session and then I find that I can't sleep. I have tried reading, warm baths, horlicks ;D, quietly listening to music, but nothing seems to get me relaxed enough to sleep. Last night I was awake until gone 2am, and when I did sleep my dreams were very odd and agitated... since I have to get up for work at 6am this can cause some pretty big problems.

Any suggestions?

[searcher2]

Use "mokuso" to integrate "issues" into the subconscious so that waking brain doesn't have to sift through it.

Hot bath.

Keep notepad by the bed. Scribble down stream of conciousness writing that will get it out of your head and allow you to "not dwell on it" as it will still be there in the morning.

Alternatively, just relax so that you don't have issues to be agitated about

Remember, we don't have to rise to any stimuli we don't want to. Getting worked up just meant we let it get to us.

John

[Shotochick]

I run a hot bath, light some candles and pour myself a glass of something mildly seditive (red or white, depends on my mood). Soothing music - the soundtrack for the Big Blue is a personal favorite.

In summer I jump in the pool and repeat all of the above (without the hot bath bit).

Avoid logging in to teh net after training, it will just get you thinking.

ON the crazy dreams side.....had one last week as well, turned up for a tournament and we had to wear those silly "sumo suits". I withdrew from the fight on the context that "I do a contact sport!!!".

Cheers - E

[gh0st]

Self-hypnosis.

Works for almost everything

[AngelaG]

gh0st said:

Self-hypnosis.

Works for almost everything

Please elaborate!

[gh0st]

Self hypnosis - the art of hypnotising oneself.

Part of the gigantic subject of Hypnosis, the art of guiding someone into a trance of "mesmerising" them.

I cannot go into the best way of how to do this as it is different for everyone and the information that I have spans across two books... however the theory is simple.

The most common misconception about hypnosis is that someone hypnotises you, this is not true. People enter trance state all the time, some easier than others and one is always in control while hypnotised, so believe it or not when someone is on stage acting like a chicken or pretending to be a rock star, they are actually kind of playing to the audience. If it was against their moral or deep held beliefs then they simply would not do it. Hence the movies where the bad guy hypnotises someone to assisnate or do wrong to someone else, it simply would not happen!

This is why and how self hypnosis is possible. The best way to describe the state is when you are watching a TV show / Cinema showing and you get so intently involved in it that you lose track of your current surroundings. Or when you wake up first thing and you have that "spaced out" sensation - that is also a form of self hypnosis to allow you to sleep.

I would consider mokuso the gateway to the full trance state but it takes time to learn to go into the a deep trance. Once there you can quite literally program your mind. Its a mixture of that and karate that has allowed me to come off anti-depressants, lose a tremendous amount of weight, lose any form of roadrage and hatred of driving that I used to have, gain confidence and lots of other stuff.

I will try and find some links but its one of those things that really needs to be studied, alteratively you could get hypnotised by someone else because once you learn the state and understand it, its very easy to get back to again.

[dojo]

Since I'm a pc addict it's clear what I would do after getting home. Stay for hours in front of my pc monitor and do stuff for my sites, playing games or looking at the TV
When I'm too tired, I just sleep ;D

[padwan]

Hi Angela

Have you tried or seen Zhan Zhuang its like another sytem of Qigong & takes the static ' standing on stake' approach rather than the moving forms & is a lot easier to do than to pronounce ;D

The first position is Wu Chi & simply involves standing with you feet shoulder width apart with your hands by your sides. Then start at the top of your head - move down your body & see/ feel all your muscles relaxing in turn. Breath in/ out through your nose but feel the breath coming up through your abdomen & filling your chest & try to do something like four seconds in four seconds out.

All the time just try & relax & just let you mind go try for bout 10 min & build up. This seems like hours but the more you get used to doing it the more relaxed you get & the nicer the feeling once your energy starts building.

Will be very interested to hear how you get on if you decide to try it

[Sasori Te]

I see a common theme building here so I'll jump on the bandwagon. Meditation works great for this. you just need to find one that works for you. If you're interested shoot an e-mail to me and I can give you specifics on how I do it. I use a TCM approach as I feel that a chi disruption is mainly responsible for this problem.

[AngelaG]

I'm currently interested in investigating things like colour and sound therapy too. It is a well documented fact, even in Western medicine, that blue is a healing colour. So if I was to have a specific session where I have taken knocks on the meridians and PPs and then afterwards meditate whilst imagining the ki returning and flowing through whilst "puddling" in the injured areas as blue it'd be interesting as to whether this would help the healing and returning the ki (or whatever you choose to call it) back to normal.

[Sasori Te]

Funny you should mention the color blue. The meditation I was referring to uses the color blue. After your workouts, whether at home or still at the dojo, try the following.

It's called showering with ki

stand in a natural stance with your feet a little less than shoulder width apart. (Be comfortable)

1. Hold your arms as loosely as possible over your head in a Y type position. Inhale slowly imagining that there is a bucket of lukewarm clear blue water over your head.

2. Imagine that the bucket starts pouring the water into the very top center of your head.

3. Exhale slowly as you imagine that the water fills you up from the top down. Now bring your hands together at the finger tips with the thumbs toward you and the palms down. As you exhale follow the blue waters progress with your hands as it fills you from the top down. Inch by inch imagine feeling it progress through your body as it moves toward your feet.

4. Gently help push the water down with the palms in front of you. until you finally push the water out through the K1 points on both feet.

The inhale and the exhale sequence should take about one minute total. Repeat the sequence 9 times.

Good luck.

[Aefibird]

Sasori said:

It's called showering with ki

stand in a natural stance with your feet a little less than shoulder width apart. (Be comfortable)

1. Hold your arms as loosely as possible over your head in a Y type position. Inhale slowly imagining that there is a bucket of lukewarm clear blue water over your head.

2. Imagine that the bucket starts pouring the water into the very top center of your head.

3. Exhale slowly as you imagine that the water fills you up from the top down. Now bring your hands together at the finger tips with the thumbs toward you and the palms down. As you exhale follow the blue waters progress with your hands as it fills you from the top down. Inch by inch imagine feeling it progress through your body as it moves toward your feet.

4. Gently help push the water down with the palms in front of you. until you finally push the water out through the K1 points on both feet.

The inhale and the exhale sequence should take about one minute total. Repeat the sequence 9 times.

Good luck.

Sounds interesting!
I shall have to try that.

[AngelaG]

Thanks Sasori Te.. I'll give it a try!